278 Dr. D. Sharp on 



been thoroughly examined — the Geodephaga, with 406 species, 

 and the Longicorns, with 236 species, by Bates ; the Chryso- 

 melidse, 303 species, by Baly and Jacoby *. These families, 

 with the Staphylinid^, make a total of about 1400 species, 

 and as they comprise insects of very varied habits, they may 

 be taken for statistical purposes as probably fairly represen- 

 tative of the whole collection. Bates has already discussed f 

 the relations of the Coleopterous fauna, so far as the ground- 

 beetles and Longicorns are concerned, to that of the various 

 adjacent regions ; but as we can now make use of a much 

 larger material, and as he followed Wallace's plan of using 

 generic statistics for the purposes he had in view, it is still of 

 interest to make a somewhat similar comparison, making use 

 of the species of the four great groups T have mentioned above 

 instead of the genera of the two groups treated by Bates. 



Of the 1406 species found in Japan only 210 are known to 

 occur in Europe and Siberia ; so that only about 15 per cent, 

 are common to the two subregions. A similar proportion 

 appears to be maintained in the rest of the order Coleoptera, 

 as von Heyden has stated, in the introduction to Schonfeldt's 

 Catalogue of Japanese Coleoptera, that out of the 2682 species 

 recorded in it 391, or rather less than 15 per cent., are also 

 known to occur in Siberia or Europe. This is a very small 

 amount of community for the two provinces ; but there is 

 considerable reason for supposing that the discrepancy be- 

 tween the two faunas is at present much greater than it will 

 prove to be when our information is more exhaustive. Lewis's 

 collections have been formed chiefly in the southern islands, 

 whereas it is of course in the more northern island of Yezo 

 that we should expect to find the greater amount of similarity 

 with Siberia. Moreover the Coleoptera of the extreme east 

 of Siberia are not very well known, so that I consider it far 

 from improbable that as much as 30 or 40 per cent, of the 

 species of Japanese Coleoptera may ultimately be proved to 

 exist also in Siberia, though at present the amount is only 

 15 per cent. 



A comparison of the Coleoptera of Japan with the fauna 

 of the parts of the Asiatic continent more to the south than 

 Siberia can at present be made only in a very imperfect 

 manner ; it is probable that we do not know more than one 

 tenth of the species of Coleoptera inhabiting Mantchuria, 



* Some otlier families have been worked tbrough by Lewis liimself 

 and by Gorliam and Reitter, but to these, for my present pui-pose, I need 

 not specially refer. 



t Trans. Ent. See. Lond. 1883, p. 205 et seq., and Journ. Linn. Sec. 

 xviii. pp. 205-207. 



